Everything I say is for your own benefit. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Now Smythe, take a look at what you are saying and at the attitude you are conveying. Surely judgment is a precarious thing because it often slides to hypocrisy. So God tells us not to judge or condemn or be angry at each other. Surely we are all flawed in some manner or another, and pointing out those flaws is not why we were created. It's also a horribly poor way to invest time in focusing upon negatives.
But when I choose to say something to you, it is for your own benefit, not mine. If I were worried about myself, I would go elsewhere and flee from every hardship and persecution. But these things would simply follow me around and I would become distracted from life by running all the time; my focus would be usurped from where it should be which is to God. See, that is what fear and evil do to you: they seek to destroy you and distract you and dissipate (synonymous with distract) you away from fulfilling the meaning -- yes, the very purpose -- for your life. How can you obey God if you do not first perceive him? So they distract you and say, "Hey, look at me, I can save you, so trust in your fears instead." A man who trusts in fear dies miserably and his house -- his life -- blows over and crashes completely destroyed at the slightest hint of storms in this life. You see, these kinds of people -- paranoid, for lack of a better term -- retaliate and do wicked things to serve their own lives, and therefore die by their own self-service. But a person who trusts in God obeys God when he says, "do not kill" and "love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you" and "do not hate your brother in your heart" and "love your neighbor as yourself" and "worship the Lord your God and serve him only". And so I know that God is the only constant and the only one who is absolutely Good. Putting my trust in him alone, the Lord God Almighty, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, my Heavenly Father who is with me always through Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, this my friend(s) is the best investment. And the greatest comfort I know is that The Lord is my Righteousness and my Salvation.
So you can notice your own flaws and be humble in heart before God and ask for forgiveness. He said, "If you forgive your brother when he sins against you, my Heavenly Father will forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive your brother when he sins against you, my Heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins." It pays to not be ignorant in this; forgive and you will be forgiven... or else. And really nobody should be seeking to anger God.
I'm glad we can communicate. Will you forsake God's words or will you accept eternal life of true happiness for your soul? This is the choice each person must make for themselves. (I'm glad nobody took a vote upon how worthy I am to be taught by God or else I would dwell in darkness forever and have no hope at all. Therefore, seek Life and understand by looking to God, and he will save you from whatever situation you find yourself. He can, and he will, if you are smart enough to trust in him. God said again and again that we should not be afraid but trust in God. Trusting and loving God is therefore part of obeying God, because it stems from the life God gave us through his words, through his Holy Spirit.)
This is a narrow gate, a narrow doorway, a narrow path to eternal life. Do not be left outside, knocking on the door and asking to be let in:
Luke 13:22-30 wrote:22Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, 24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
26“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
27“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
28“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
Jesus Christ came preaching repentance and forgave us our sins. He has all authority over heaven and earth and is The Lord God Almighty, one with God his Father, and made us all one in him so that we might be one with God through him. He sanctified himself in God's Word so that we would be saved through him. This command he received from his Father, Our Father, so that God would be glorified in him. Read:
http://niv.scripturetext.com/john/17.htm
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6“I have revealed you(footnote a) to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify(footnote b) them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Footnotes:
a 6 Greek your name; also in verse 26
b 17 Greek hagiazo (set apart for sacred use or make holy); also in verse 19
My time is limited here at MacGamingMods, and here on Earth. Your time is also limited here. Therefore, I have sought to speak to you of things that are truly important and about that which you can actually do something for yourself and for others that will have much greater implications -- "fruit that will last" -- because it deals with God and how God deals with each of us... it concerns our relationship with God. There is no secret here if you learn from God; do not let yourself wander around on treacherous paths where you will fall from lack of knowing God, but know God and choose to either obey him and do what is good and right for yourself, for others, and for God, or decide to disobey God and suffer a curse on your entire life which will be to be blinded to God. I would think you want to see and do good things in life and to know God and be happy in Jesus Christ as your Righteousness and Salvation.
If I continue speaking of things which have little significance, such as computer games, these will only distract you from that which is really important if I neglect to serve you and God in this way. Each person must "seek first the Kingdom of God, and then all these [other things you need in life] will be given to you." You see, life is short. People are starving to death and dying and living in misery everywhere on earth. Playing computer games is not going to help these people, nor will ignoring them when they cry for help. You must work for true justice not by living in fear of death but by working for God. Have in mind the things of God, not the things of man.
You see all that money? It's crap. I hate it. Why? Because it's based upon manipulation, blackmail and self-service. If you serve only yourself, your entire life's work perishes with you... and quite frankly it also is fruitless along the way and will only cause you and others to suffer. "What is highly valued by man is detestable in God's sight," and "The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight."
God alone is good. If god were bad, then nothing would exist. As it is, God is Good and has created Life itself and defined all things. It is up to mankind to recognize God when he speaks to us, but still it is not only up to us or else we would fail in this also. God is with us always through Jesus Christ. Before, we failed time and again and suffered horribly from our own disobedience. Yet God is the only one who can save, and he did, and he does.
You hear bad news because that is what people choose to focus upon. Haven't you heard the good news? If you have not yet, then you will hear it from me, because that is upon which I choose to focus. Focus upon God and trust in God.
For heaven's sake, man, read the Bible already. No matter where you open in it, no matter which page you open it to, God will teach you himself by his Holy Spirit. Look.
And remember, this is not a matter of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours," but it is a matter of obedience to the only God who exists, and a matter of true life and true death. You don't want to lose your very soul or forfeit what God has given freely.